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a stick of butter

Dear teachers,

I read a sentence in a quiz which impress me with a new for me word "stick" in its role of a food container or measurement. Could you explain to me the origin of this term as well as tell me something more in detail.

I need another stick of butter for the cookies I'm making.

I know the classical definition of this term: a rectangular quarter pound block of butter or margarine.

This is for enough off my mental picture concerning the meaning of the term "stick". For example a small tin brunch of a tree, cinnamon sticks, a stick of dynamite,a stick salami, a stick of chocolate, a stick of gum, a stick of chalk etc.

Re: a stick of butter

This is tricky, but basically, "stick" is the unit of butter, dynamite, chalk, gum, etc., that is most usual.
This works for your examples (but "thin branch", not "tin brunch"). But I'd never say "stick of chocolate"; a piece of chocolate can be almost any size or shape. Also I don't like "stick salami," I suspect it's an error; I'd say "slice of salami."

Re: a stick of butter

Hi bagarah131,

Thank you for your professional reply as well as for your exquisite corrections.
Indeed the replacement of the "bunch" with the "brunch"was an absurd, unforgivable blunder. Every rookie knows that brunch=a meal typically eaten late in the morning as a combination of a late breakfast and an early lunch and that "thin" is at very far remove from the "tin", which usually is a noun with the meaning "a container or box made from the tin, which on the other hand is a malleable, silvery metallic element.The same holds true in respect of "a stick of chocolate" There is a more proper expression "chocolate bar".

I will try to follow your estimated recommendations as well as to put them into practice.

Re: a stick of butter

Originally Posted by vil

Dear teachers,

I read a sentence in a quiz which impress me with a new for me word "stick" in its role of a food container or measurement. Could you explain to me the origin of this term as well as tell me something more in detail.

I need another stick of butter for the cookies I'm making.

I know the classical definition of this term: a rectangular quarter pound block of butter or margarine.

This is for enough off my mental picture concerning the meaning of the term "stick". For example a small tin brunch of a tree, cinnamon sticks, a stick of dynamite,a stick salami, a stick of chocolate, a stick of gum, a stick of chalk etc.